John Stahl has joined Automotion as the company's new Latin American sales manager. Stahl comes to the conveyor and sortation manufacturer with over two decades of experience working for material handling companies and brings experience developing distribution operations in Latin America. He previously worked for Portec Flomaster and has also served as an independent consultant.
Richard Doggett is the new vice president of sales at Forte, a supply chain consulting and integration firm. Doggett brings more than 17 years of sales and marketing experience to his new position, most recently with John Deere Landscapes. At Forte, he will be responsible for sales, marketing, and developing new business opportunities.
The Port of Tacoma has made several staff changes. Martyn Adamson has been promoted to director of information technology. Steve DeRose has joined the port as purchasing manager. Tri Howard has been hired as records manager. And Lisa Rozmyn has been hired as environmental project manager-stormwater.
Raymond Corp. has named Alan Marder director of technology solutions. In this new role, Marder will be responsible for researching, developing, implementing, and marketing emerging technologies for the material handling industry.
The International Warehouse Logistics Association (IWLA) has selected Michael Vasko as vice president-operations and administration. Vasko has spent most of his career working for nonprofit associations.
Ports America Group has appointed Deborah Telman general counsel at the company's headquarters in Iselin, N.J. Ports America is the largest independent port terminal operator in North America. Before joining Ports America, Telman served as chief counsel for mergers and acquisitions at The Boeing Co. in Chicago.
Matt Stokfisz has joined supply chain software company Zethcon Corp. as an outside sales executive. Before joining Zethcon, Stokfisz was an account manager-supply chain-3PL with Infor Global Solutions.
FreightScan, a company that provides technology solutions for the freight and logistics industries, has appointed Melih Sindel vice president of engineering. In his new role, Sindel will be responsible for engineering and product development.
George Abernathy has been promoted to chief operating officer at Transplace, a company that provides transportation management services and logistics technology solutions. Prior to his promotion, Abernathy served as the company's executive vice president. He has been with Transplace since 2004.
Joel Williamson is the new production manager at Clark Material Handling. He will oversee the manufacturing, modification, material planning, and production control operations at Clark's facility in Lexington, Ky. Williamson has been with the lift truck manufacturer for over 15 years.
Dart Advantage Warehousing Inc. has chosen Kyle Carroll as its new vice president of operations. Carroll will oversee the operations of all Dart Advantage Warehousing locations and help the company grow through additional facilities and services. Dart Advantage operates warehouses in Georgia, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania.
KSW Microtec, a German supplier of RFID components, has promoted Sebastian Gallschutz to product manager for its Access and Security division. In his new role, Gallschutz, who previously was the company's research and development manager, will define products and strategies to grow KSW's business in the access control market as well as develop the company's e-government business.
CargoWise, a company that provides integrated international supply chain logistics management systems, has hired Bill Todd as its new business development manager CHB (Customs House Brokerage). Todd comes to CargoWise with extensive industry experience, most recently as vice president of sales for software provider IES.
Sokymat Automotive, a Germany-based developer of RFID components, has named Marc Schnippering regional sales manager for the company's operations in the United States. Schnippering, who will be based in Barrington, R.I., will focus on expanding the company's presence in the RFID and transponder marketplace. He comes to Sokymat Automotive with more than 10 years of sales experience in the RFID industry, having worked for Assa Abloy Identification Technologies and HID Global.
Among the flurry of orders he issued in the hours after his inauguration, incoming President Trump has named new leaders for two critical federal agencies overseeing transportation and freight flows.
In a statement, rail industry group the Association of American Railroads (AAR) applauded the appointment. “Chairman Fuchs has proven to be a thoughtful, solutions-oriented leader who lets data drive the decision-making process,” AAR President and CEO Ian Jefferies said in a release. “Throughout his career, he has been committed to maintaining the balanced regulatory framework that allows railroads to invest while also offering appropriate remedies for rail customers. America’s railroads look forward to working with him as we advance our shared goal of a thriving, vibrant rail network that helps businesses and our economy continue to grow.”
Container traffic is finally back to typical levels at the port of Montreal, two months after dockworkers returned to work following a strike, port officials said Thursday.
Today that arbitration continues as the two sides work to forge a new contract. And port leaders with the Maritime Employers Association (MEA) are reminding workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) that the CIRB decision “rules out any pressure tactics affecting operations until the next collective agreement expires.”
The Port of Montreal alone said it had to manage a backlog of about 13,350 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) on the ground, as well as 28,000 feet of freight cars headed for export.
Port leaders this week said they had now completed that task. “Two months after operations fully resumed at the Port of Montreal, as directed by the Canada Industrial Relations Board, the Montreal Port Authority (MPA) is pleased to announce that all port activities are now completely back to normal. Both the impact of the labour dispute and the subsequent resumption of activities required concerted efforts on the part of all port partners to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, even over the holiday season,” the port said in a release.
The “2024 Year in Review” report lists the various transportation delays, freight volume restrictions, and infrastructure repair costs of a long string of events. Those disruptions include labor strikes at Canadian ports and postal sites, the U.S. East and Gulf coast port strike; hurricanes Helene, Francine, and Milton; the Francis Scott key Bridge collapse in Baltimore Harbor; the CrowdStrike cyber attack; and Red Sea missile attacks on passing cargo ships.
“While 2024 was characterized by frequent and overlapping disruptions that exposed many supply chain vulnerabilities, it was also a year of resilience,” the Project44 report said. “From labor strikes and natural disasters to geopolitical tensions, each event served as a critical learning opportunity, underscoring the necessity for robust contingency planning, effective labor relations, and durable infrastructure. As supply chains continue to evolve, the lessons learned this past year highlight the increased importance of proactive measures and collaborative efforts. These strategies are essential to fostering stability and adaptability in a world where unpredictability is becoming the norm.”
In addition to tallying the supply chain impact of those events, the report also made four broad predictions for trends in 2025 that may affect logistics operations. In Project44’s analysis, they include:
More technology and automation will be introduced into supply chains, particularly ports. This will help make operations more efficient but also increase the risk of cybersecurity attacks and service interruptions due to glitches and bugs. This could also add tensions among the labor pool and unions, who do not want jobs to be replaced with automation.
The new administration in the United States introduces a lot of uncertainty, with talks of major tariffs for numerous countries as well as talks of US freight getting preferential treatment through the Panama Canal. If these things do come to fruition, expect to see shifts in global trade patterns and sourcing.
Natural disasters will continue to become more frequent and more severe, as exhibited by the wildfires in Los Angeles and the winter storms throughout the southern states in the U.S. As a result, expect companies to invest more heavily in sustainability to mitigate climate change.
The peace treaty announced on Wednesday between Isael and Hamas in the Middle East could support increased freight volumes returning to the Suez Canal as political crisis in the area are resolved.
The French transportation visibility provider Shippeo today said it has raised $30 million in financial backing, saying the money will support its accelerated expansion across North America and APAC, while driving enhancements to its “Real-Time Transportation Visibility Platform” product.
The funding round was led by Woven Capital, Toyota’s growth fund, with participation from existing investors: Battery Ventures, Partech, NGP Capital, Bpifrance Digital Venture, LFX Venture Partners, Shift4Good and Yamaha Motor Ventures. With this round, Shippeo’s total funding exceeds $140 million.
Shippeo says it offers real-time shipment tracking across all transport modes, helping companies create sustainable, resilient supply chains. Its platform enables users to reduce logistics-related carbon emissions by making informed trade-offs between modes and carriers based on carbon footprint data.
"Global supply chains are facing unprecedented complexity, and real-time transport visibility is essential for building resilience” Prashant Bothra, Principal at Woven Capital, who is joining the Shippeo board, said in a release. “Shippeo’s platform empowers businesses to proactively address disruptions by transforming fragmented operations into streamlined, data-driven processes across all transport modes, offering precise tracking and predictive ETAs at scale—capabilities that would be resource-intensive to develop in-house. We are excited to support Shippeo’s journey to accelerate digitization while enhancing cost efficiency, planning accuracy, and customer experience across the supply chain.”
ReposiTrak, a global food traceability network operator, will partner with Upshop, a provider of store operations technology for food retailers, to create an end-to-end grocery traceability solution that reaches from the supply chain to the retail store, the firms said today.
The partnership creates a data connection between suppliers and the retail store. It works by integrating Salt Lake City-based ReposiTrak’s network of thousands of suppliers and their traceability shipment data with Austin, Texas-based Upshop’s network of more than 450 retailers and their retail stores.
That accomplishment is important because it will allow food sector trading partners to meet the U.S. FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act Section 204d (FSMA 204) requirements that they must create and store complete traceability records for certain foods.
And according to ReposiTrak and Upshop, the traceability solution may also unlock potential business benefits. It could do that by creating margin and growth opportunities in stores by connecting supply chain data with store data, thus allowing users to optimize inventory, labor, and customer experience management automation.
"Traceability requires data from the supply chain and – importantly – confirmation at the retail store that the proper and accurate lot code data from each shipment has been captured when the product is received. The missing piece for us has been the supply chain data. ReposiTrak is the leader in capturing and managing supply chain data, starting at the suppliers. Together, we can deliver a single, comprehensive traceability solution," Mark Hawthorne, chief innovation and strategy officer at Upshop, said in a release.
"Once the data is flowing the benefits are compounding. Traceability data can be used to improve food safety, reduce invoice discrepancies, and identify ways to reduce waste and improve efficiencies throughout the store,” Hawthorne said.
Under FSMA 204, retailers are required by law to track Key Data Elements (KDEs) to the store-level for every shipment containing high-risk food items from the Food Traceability List (FTL). ReposiTrak and Upshop say that major industry retailers have made public commitments to traceability, announcing programs that require more traceability data for all food product on a faster timeline. The efforts of those retailers have activated the industry, motivating others to institute traceability programs now, ahead of the FDA’s enforcement deadline of January 20, 2026.